Or to be specific Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni. Supposedly, the emphasis of "Na" is extremely important and absolutely integral to the entire story. Just to give you a brief introduction, this series is based on a doujin PC game by 07th Expansion, and it was very popular among the masses. Interestingly enough, this doujin game virtually has no porn in it, and the bishoujo designs of the girls are not that appealing (well not according to the usual cutesy and sexy designs found in other doujin games). It's somewhat of a conundrum here if you ask me, but I'm definetely curious of what this series has in store.

The synopsis can be found here:

Animenfo wrote:The main character Maehara Keiichi moved to Hinamizawa Village. It is a small village whose population is less than 2,000. It was supposed to be under water because of the construction of a dam. But the villagers cooperate together to stop the project. At first, Keiichi is spending peaceful school days with his new friends. However, his life is changed dramatically by a murder case occurred in June. Furthermore, he learns that similar murders have occurred on the same day of June since 4 years ago.

Well, the first episode of Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni is finally released. First I'll get this off my chest, the opening sequence ROCKS. I believe it's done by I've Sound as it says here. It's pretty haunting yet it still has the catchy techno found in most bishoujo series; it's an odd mix. Now as for the episode itself...

...before the OP started, there's a brief scene of a guy brutally killing two girls into a bloody pulp. It was damn creepy!

Then after the OP sequence, it's pretty much your standard introduction episode of every other bishoujo PC game-based series: main guy in monolouge introduces himself and a bunch of cute girls along the way and some visualized cute comedy. Though once the mysterious plot of the killings start creeping up, the atmosphere literally shifts 180 degrees especially when few of the girls denies any of that. The episode ended with that maroon-haired girl Rene holding a hatchet.

I'll say this, expect LOTS of psychotic cute girls.

There's a reason why the original PC game became popular, and it was certainly not because of the cute bishoujo designs (they were really...*ugh*).

There are some cute and funny moments, but there were LOTS of creepy and disturbing moments. This is especially true when Keiichi confronted Rena. Rena's cutesy personality drastically shifted when she questioned him about what he was talking about with the police officer. I really jumped when she yelled "LIAR" at him, and then she just smiled and walked away.

More fu**ed up and creepy ass stuff happened. Keiichi and that police officer had a little meeting during lunch. The policeman explained to him the connection of the past deaths and Keiichi's girl friends. He also mentioned that Rena is a serious psychopath at her old school.

For some reason Rena and that green-haired chick Mion knew about this meeting so they confronted him at his home. They gave him food after that. When Keiichi was eating, he noticed those two stuck a needle in the food. He made the assumption those two are trying to kill him.

So Keiichi obtained an aluminum bat at a locker so he can use it for protection. During the end of the school, Rena caught up to him and said that bat was Satoshi's, the one who was "transfered" away. She complained how history is repeating itself so she was "worried" that it'll happen to Keiichi too.

The episode ended with Keiichi bein alone at his house while talking to the policeman on the phone. And during that moment, someone was ringing on his doorbell repeatedly.

My suggestion for Keiichi, grab a pair of rollerblades and go Lil' Slugger on these pint-sized freaks!!!

Episode 4.......HOLY FU**ING SHIT!!!! This episode ended the first arc, but DAMN! This is seriously the most freaky thing I have ever seen since Paranoia Agent. You get no spoilers out of me since you really have to watch it yourself, but I have been sweating like crazy at the shear horror of this episode.

Anyone who wants a very good horror suspense like Paranoia Agent, Perfect Blue, or Monster should seriously check this out! You'll never look at cutesy, moe characters the same way ever again!

The set-up of the overall story is interesting yet pretty complex. To put it in a nutshell, there are several chapters which tells the same story with the same characters but have different actions and endings. The chapters are split up into two arcs, the "Question" arc and the "Answer" arc. The 1st four episodes makes up the Onikakushi-hen chapter which is part of the "Question" arc. I believe the next set of episode will go to the Watanagashi-hen chapter which is still in the "Question" arc.

In all, it's up to you as the viewer to put together these chapters, and you'll noticed there's some sort of connection.... In a way, it sort of like Boogiepop Phantom in terms of putting the clues laid out yourself.

Seriously, for an anime based on a doujin game (hell, even the game itself), I have to give these guys lots of credit for making it horrific and intriguingly complicated at the same time.

Overall, similar set up as episode 1 with a few cutesy activites with Keiichi and the girls. Though this episode also revealed a new character whose name is Shion who is Mion's twin sister. Though the weird thing that happened is that...

...when Keiichi found himself in trouble with a biker gang, Shion appeared and told them to buzz off. Then later a bunch of townspeople appeared surrounding the gang, and the gang ran away.

Spoiler wrote:The part with the townspeople walking up and staring reminded me alot of the towns people in RE4. and why the fuck did (I never remember names) The green haired tomboy loli pretend to be her twin sister she seems to be so embarresd of?

DAMMIT! I just cant wait to se whats gonna happen next!

This series is tilting heavily to get into my DvD collection once its out!

But is it only me or does someone else also hate when japanese people try to sing in eng when they suck at it. It's horrible to lissen to the ending of this series. this allso occurs in the end or opening of NANA. Kinda pity because both of the songs really rock!

I'm not so smart. I just stay with the problem a little longer ---- Einstein